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As
I sit in my vet’s office, worried, waiting for what I fear
will be bad news for my chained-dog friend Bo, I glance at the notices
on the office wall. There I discover yet another reason NOT to chain
Fido out to a doghouse, tree, or other nearby stationary object
for life; a reason I hadn’t yet realized could easily become
a reality.
The
Alert from the PA Department of Agriculture read, “On April
4, 2003 two raccoons fought with a dog during daylight hours in
Huntingdon County, PA. They were shot and found to be rabid. The
dog was chained to a doghouse, and had no current rabies vaccination.
The owner elected to euthanize.”
I
think of that nameless, faceless dog in rural PA and send a prayer
his way. He was sentenced to life at the end of a chain, victimized
by animals he couldn’t escape, and euthanized for a crime he
didn’t commit. It is unthinkable to expose man’s best
friend to this kind of torture, for no crime except that of loving
and trusting man too much.
Chained
and penned dogs suffer on all levels, from the physical to issues
of environment and psychology. Dr. Marty Becker, author of The Healing
Power of Pets states, “Every time I drive the 16 miles from
my ranch to my hometown in northern Idaho, I pass dogs that are
chained to a tree, to a doghouse or to a stake driven into the ground.
Make no mistake. These aren't loving, responsible pet owners who
temporarily secure their outdoor dogs to make sure the animals are
safe. I feel frustration at their caretakers' lack of understanding
that chaining a dog all the time can have serious consequences for
the pet and its guardian.”
The
biggest physical challenges facing the chained or penned dog are
lack of exercise and sometimes lack of food. Water is a serious
concern because even if filled daily the bowl tips over due to movement
of the dog and chain. These are very basic needs! Confinement to
a 5-10 foot radius leads to desperate pacing in an effort to release
penned-up energy and frustration. As these dogs are “out of
sight, out of mind”, health problems, as well as basic immunizations
and vet checks required by law, go unheeded—the dogs may suffer
needless physical anguish and death due to negligence on the part
of their “guardians.”
Two
recent cases reported to Dogs Deserve Better bring this point home.
An animal control officer in Georgia was called to investigate and
found a female black lab mix with a chain, a rope, and a shoestring
so deeply embedded in her neck that her trachea was almost severed.
Her life was saved through miraculous efforts of the vet, vet tech,
and animal officer. Dogs Deserve Better volunteers in PA rescued
a yellow lab mix male with blood running from his genitals each
time he attempted to urinate. He received emergency surgery and
was determined to have a stone the size of a golf ball growing in
his bladder. According to Dr. Nour Hassane, “the stone had
been present for at least a year and grew larger the longer it went
unattended.” Death would surely have been a welcome release
for the poor soul living in pain of this magnitude.
Environmental
dangers, in addition to attacks by wild or rabid animals, include
vulnerability to theft for laboratory or other use, an outside existence
with little to no shelter from the elements—extreme heat or
cold, snow or rain—and constant exposure to biting insects
such as fleas and ticks. At this point we have no known stats, but
one newspaper stated that fourteen dogs in Youngstown, Ohio froze
to death outdoors this past December, and Dave Nelson, Animal Charity
humane agent, said, "If you can't get out there and give your
dog proper food, proper water, proper shelter, there's something
really wrong."
These dogs also constantly walk and lay in their own feces and become
parasite-ridden with tapeworms, hookworms, and whipworms. I personally
have never fostered a rescued chained dog that was not infested
with parasitic worms of at least one of these varieties. The risk
of deadly heartworm is greatly increased due to constant exposure
to the elements combined with lack of veterinary care and preventative
medication.
I
recently had a total of five dogs living at my house—two of
my own and 3 fosters. All but one were formerly chained dogs. As
I worked in my home office, all five slept near me on the floor
of the living room. Each time I stood, all five would stand with
me and prepare to go wherever I was going in the house. I was the
Alpha Dog and they were my pack. It struck me how horrible it must
be for an animal so full of love and need to be sentenced to solitary
confinement.
My
neighbor, Denny, once said to me, “There are inside dogs and
there are outside dogs.” I could not disagree more. We are
the pack. When we sentence them to a chained or penned existence,
they are ostracized from that pack. The psychological damage this
does becomes evident in many ways. They act out...ceaseless barking,
jumping, pacing, depression, and even unsocialized behavior such
as biting and aggression may appear. Debby Dobson, owner of Good
Dog Animal Behavior in Sedona, Arizona, states, “Dogs have
the same range and depth of emotions as humans and those who have
been neglected seem to display heightened or exaggerated feelings
to various stimuli.” Many a chained dog will kill anything
that appears in it’s ‘circle of space’ because he/she
becomes so territorial. It can and does drive a dog insane.
Bo
did not come home with me that day. My first chained dog rescue,
the reason that Dogs Deserve Better exists today, has gone to the
great beyond, April 25, 2003. I wear his dog tag, I cry for the
soul I loved so dearly and inspired me to such heights. I pray that
the six months I gave in some way eased the pain of his first ten
years.
I
thank him for the gift he’s given me. He and others like him
have become my mission.
—Tammy
S. Grimes is the Founder of Dogs Deserve Better. To contact Tammy,
please email: tammy@dogsdeservebetter.org.
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